04/22/2017

So it's 2017 and despite plenty of
marketing hype we're still waiting for Sharepoint or any other major vendor
product to prove a worthy replacement for the power and flexibility of
Lotus Notes as an application platform. There are countless examples of
business-critical Lotus Notes and Domino apps that are still chugging away
even after million$ have been spent on failed migrations (or hopefully
because those millions remain wisely unspent). The reason for this is simple:
Notes is special.

You see, there are two types of people
in the (IT) world: Those that truly, deeply, get Notes. And everybody else.
If you were expecting a successful migration of a complex Notes app and
didn't hire someone in the first group to help, you were probably disappointed.
If you were expecting a completely new platform to come along and truly
replace Notes itself, you should likewise expect folks from the first group
to build it. And maybe they just did.

If you yourself are among the group
of IT folks who truly understand the capabilities and usefulness of Lotus
Notes then you've probably bumped into John Ryan or Gary Walsh from DLI.Tools
(aka Docova). As third-party tool vendors DLI.Tools has been a force in
the Lotus Community for decades. These guys get it, better than you and
I in all likelihood. The Docova product has for years been a sensible upgrade
from a Quickr or Domino.Doc installation. Now with the release of version
5 of Docova, they are aiming a little higher. As John recently put it on his blog introducing the new release:

So, why doesn’t
anybody out there have a true end-to-end migration solution for Notes applications
like DOCOVA? Two reasons, first, because it’s difficult. Second,
because it’s difficult.

Companies don’t want to process re-engineer their Notes applications on
a “new” software platform because it can’t do what Notes did. They
need better. That’s why we stepped into this arena.

I highly recommend checking out the
Docova blog where John is currently up to part 7 in a 17-partMigrate
Notes to DOCOVA Blog Series. You will also find links to
a short youtube demo video that will probably blow you away. Watch this
space...

04/10/2015

And not necessarily in that order. Suffice
it to say that Ytria's "Addiction May Occur" marketing slogan
from a few years ago is spot on:

I kind of knew this already but a three-day
spell this week spent waiting for fresh licenses really drove home the
point. What's that you say? You're a Notes/Domino admin or developer and
don't use Ytria tools? Don't worry, not all addictions are bad (see above
list).

09/09/2014

We couldn’t understand
why people without technical knowledge had to tell programmers “what”
to do and, furthermore, they had to supervise “how” programmers did it.

This article
really resonated with me since I have frequently seen first hand how a
lack of conscientious programming can cost an organization in the long
run.Call me crazy but I have always taken the long view when coding since
much of my work in recent years has involved unravelling the "shortcuts"
and sloppy work of previous programmer/developers. Why do so many
programmers produce so much crappy code?

At big tech companies
we frequently observed how programmers would do bad work in a short period
of time and receive praise from their bosses. Over time, this leads to
the standard: “let’s program with low quality but as fast as possible.”

So, blame it on the managers! Indeed
after asserting that a developer needs at least a 4-hour stretch uninterrupted
to be most effective, one of my favorite observations in the article neatly
articulates the damage that even a "short meeting" can cause:

If for example, our boss assigns a meeting at 11am,
then the morning is lost since I have to get ready for the meeting, attend
the meeting, greet everybody, discuss the topics, then I have to go back
to my desk and pick up exactly from where I had left off, see what I was
doing and keep on programming. With all these activities, the whole morning
is practically lost.

As the article points out not all developer/programmers
are suited for a self-guided style of work, but I recently marked 3 years
working almost entirely from home and have to agree that if you can pull
it off, the benefits are tremendous, both in terms of quality of work and
lifestyle. I believe my choice of platform (Lotus Notes) is also particularly
well-suited to this style of work.

05/12/2014

The Lotus Community lost a treasured member with the sudden passing of our friend Tim Tripcony. I don't know what else to do but help remember him and found this clip buried in my archives. This was from the Design Partner party at Lotusphere 2009. Tim you will be missed...

09/20/2013

Please join the DC Lotus
User Group October 24th to welcome both Ytria and Teamstudio to
Washington (well, Tysons Corner actually). Well known for their sanity
preserving admin and developer tools prized by productive and heroic Lotus
professionals for many years, both vendors will be in town for our first
ever *morning* DCLUG event. In addition to showing off their latest wares
in back to back sessions, they will stick around for a lunchtime "Stump
the LUG" session where we invite you to share your own technical pain
points with the entire group and to discuss how you can address them (perhaps
with tools you didn't know you needed).

For more information and to RSVP for
this event, visit our Meetup page.

03/12/2013

I can't think of a better
reason to break blog silence than to announce the opening of a new chapter
for DCLUG. In case you've been living under a rock for the last year (or
like in my case had a new baby), you might have missed the many great articles
that our adopted son Mark has been writing over on his Xomino.com blog.
Well, Mark is also fresh off his debut at Lotusphere, er, IBMConnect this
past January, where he covered the topic of JQuery in XPages, and he is
going to bring some of that experience to Washington DC later this month.
And I should mention that Mark is actually local to DC (don't let the British
accent fool you) and is working to organize more DCLUG events in the months
ahead. If there is a topic you want covered, let him know!

For all the details of what, where,
and when check out DC
Lotus Professionals on Meetup.com. As this is the first DCLUG
event in over a year, we will also be looking to bring on new members,
including those with an interest in taking on leadership and organizing
roles within the group. With both LotusUserGroup.org and IBM ramping up
support for local user groups, this is a great time to get involved. Don't
be shy!

IMPORTANT: You will need to register
on our Meetup.com site
in order to attend. Hope to see you there!

05/11/2011

Interesting year we're having, eh? Perhaps
a bit more than the usual amount of consternation over the future of, well,
everything Yellow. Amidst all the hubbub I thought I'd break blog silence
to address one specific issue that it seems has been at least a contributing
factor in IT decisions to move away from Notes as an application platform.
I also set up a census/survey
related to this question, but more on that below...

I was inspired to write this post after
Lotus Developer and XPage Guru David Leedy last
month sparked a vibrant conversation with his post Company might leave Notes App Dev (but
not email) due to lack of developers about his former employer
in Lebanon, PA. The issue at hand is the apparent shortage of Lotus Notes/Domino
development talent and how that has caused this company to consider a complete
shift away from Domino apps. That Lebanon is a relatively small market
probably makes finding any kind of IT talent a bit harder than many places,
but I've heard similar complaints from IT managers in big cities as well.

I don't know about you, but every time
I hear someone cite a Lotus talent shortage for why it makes sense to move
away from Domino (typically to Sharepoint /.NET), I struggle to reconcile
that perception with the frequent complaints from fellow Lotus developers
about the shortage of jobs. Clearly there is a disconnect somewhere, and
I have an idea about its cause. What I see here is a "vicious
circle" meets "chicken and egg" problem, with a sizable
pool of "hidden" Lotus talent sitting on the job search sidelines,
too afraid (if they have a job) or too discouraged (whether they have a
job or not, whether doing Lotus development or not) to post their resume/CV
for potential (or current) employers to see. Employers in turn conclude
there is a talent shortage and give up looking to instead pursue a new
platform strategy.

It is worth noting that there is also
a bit of a false equivalence when comparing the number of available Lotus
Notes developers (and more so administrators) to the number focused on
Sharepoint/.Net/ SQL/ IIS. Frankly, you need fewer bodies to maintain and
develop for the Lotus platform (Feel free to offer specific examples or
counter-examples in the comments). And considering how easy it can be to
work remotely on Domino administrative and development tasks (even offline
- thank you local replication!), Notes shops need not limit themselves
to local talent.. Also, as was pointed out in the comments on David's post,
you can grow your own developers by *training* them, and there is a ton
of XPages training material out now. These points are. sadly, lost on many
IT decision makers.

It's hard to dispute that Lotus Notes/Domino
is struggling in the market when even IBM are actively downplaying the
Lotus brand. It's very easy to rationalize an application platform shift
in the current climate, but on this one point about a "talent shortage"
I am extremely skeptical. Is there a genuine Lotus talent shortage?

I'd like to hear from you!

I would also like to invite you and
any current or former Lotus Developer friends you know to respond
to a brief Lotus
Developer "Census" (i.e. survey) I set up to validate
my "hidden talent" theory. The results of the survey will be
shared publicly, but any personal contact info you choose to provide will
be seen only by myself. I would encourage you to include your name and
email though, as I am hoping this survey will prove a valuable recruiting
tool going forward (especially for those of you who are unhappy or underutilized).
Your contact information will also allow me to contact you to follow up
on any interesting comments you may offer as part of your survey responses.
I'm hoping this will be a learning experience for all of us. Thank you
for responding and for helping spread the word.

OpenNTF

Archive

Disclaimer

This site is in no way affiliated, endorsed, sanctioned, supported, nor blessed by Lotus Software nor IBM Corporation, nor any of my past or future clients (although they are welcome to do so). The opinions, theories, facts, etc. presented here are my own and in no way represent any official pronouncement by me on behalf of any other entity.